California · Nonprofit
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY (California) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,258,692 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($561,158). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.7M
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $4.3M
- Net assets
- $7.9M
What Children's Museum of Sonoma County does
Mission
To inspire curiosity and creativity in children through joyful, transformative experiences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Founded in 2005, the Children's Museum of Sonoma County is a leading provider of cultural, educational, science, technology, engineering, art, and math (steam) learning experiences for families throughout the bay area. External partnerships expand the walls of the museum into the community and include collaborations with numerous organizations including, but not limited to, caritas village, indian health project, sonoma county master gardeners, and corazn healdsburg. The museum welcomed 196,000 visitors in 2024-25. Notably, over 48,000 (or 25%) of those visitors entered the museum through discounted membership and admissions as a result of our access for all program for low-income children and their caregivers. A bustling hub of activity, on peak attendance days the facility is bursting at the seams. As a result, cmosc is in the midst of an expansion capital campaign that will add a 7,400 sf wing to the current museum, doubling its size and significantly expanding its offerings for children ages 8-12. The expansion will break ground in 2026 and be completed in 2028.
$2,037,516 spent$1,762,737 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,037,516.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $4.6M to $6.5M (+41%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 1% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 27% · 2022 13% · 2023 3% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Collette Michaud
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $239k → $599k.
10 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
48% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 36% · 2019 22% · 2020 51% · 2021 39% · 2022 25% · 2023 50% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
68% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
61% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $40k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$40k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY?
- CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY (California) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,258,692 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($561,158). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $4,258,692 in grants to CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $561,158 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Children's Museum of Sonoma County →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 41 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing